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13/03/26 — At least twice during deliberations for the 2012 budget, councillor Paul Collard said the interests of his ward outweigh the interests of other parts of the community.

What follows are transcripts from two budget meetings. Only Collard’s comments are transcribed and redacted for relevance.

Nov. 7, 2011 — I have to look at the overall benefit of the town — but the one comment that councillor Hill made, and it was the transportation — I think about the people in Ward 6.

When they did the transportation study, there was no transportation available nor would there be for people in Ward 6.

So the young children who won’t be able to ride the bus to go to the pool, it’s difficult. It’s difficult for me to sell that to those people in Ward 6, although I think that they would support it generally.

I think of the church bus that goes around every Sunday to take them to church. Maybe somewhere we can come up with some kind of pool bus — councillor Hill kind of alluded to that — to get the kids who want to use the pool for swimming lessons.

Other than swimming in Black Creek, there’s not a heck of a lot for Ward 6.

So that’s part of my deliberation in looking at this recommendation.

Jan. 18, 2012 — With all due respect to councillor Passero, I don’t know where this huge amount of support for the pool is, and I can speak for perhaps the people in Ward 6, and nobody has certainly picked up the phone and called me and said that we have to make sure this pool gets built in Ward 1. In fact, I’ve had the opposite happen.

I think down in Ward 6, and I don’t want to be selfish here, but I do have to look after the ratepayers in my ward, and we’re looking at a possible reduction in library services, and at the moment we have no public transit in Ward 6, and I’m going to keep hammering on that.

If I was going to have a 1.6 per cent increase, it would be to have expanded services down in Ward 6 rather than less or none.